Welcome to the Landmark Services Old House Renovation Blog

My dear friend David reached out recently on the eve of starting a construction project on his home. He said that he’d received two quotes from reputable builders and that one of them wanted to work Fixed-Price and the other offered a Cost-Plus Fee model, and he wanted to know which I thought was better.

While we're talking about innovative products I thought I'd mention another pretty cool new idea. A company called Trufig has invented a line of wall switches and outlets that can be flush mounted with any surface, and therefore made to almost disappear.

From time to time I see projects tabled or postponed due to budgetary reasons. It's unfortunate at any point in the process but it's particularly heartbreaking when the clients have spent many months and many thousands of dollars on design fees, only to learn that the beautiful project depicted in the architect's drawings will cost much more than they are able or willing to invest.

We have worked with the owners of a ca. 1895 Shingle Style house just south of Boston for over five years. We started by renovating the exterior, stripping the house of its shingles and installing new ones, rebuilding the porches, and restoring the carriage house. Two years ago we completely renovated the third floor (I'll post an article about that at a later date).

Kitchen design is a very personal thing, especially when it comes to old houses. Some people want the kitchen to match the period look of their house while others don't mind having a more modern looking space.

In the course of a recent renovation of a ca. 1795 home in Milton, we
needed to replicate an original rooftop balustrade.The one surviving
section displayed a "spider web" pattern composed of many small pieces
of wood nailed together.